


in the end, we all fall down

by atiredwriter



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Bigotry, Cannibalism, Emotional Abuse, Minato is transgender, Name Calling, Other, Physical Abuse, Queerplatonic Relationships, Sexual Abuse, Triggers, accidental misgendering of a trans youth, dark P3 fem protag, dark one-sided P3 Fem Protag/Minato, out of place fluff, psychological abuse, purposeful misgendering of a trans youth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-03-22 02:25:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3711337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atiredwriter/pseuds/atiredwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’d been riding in the car intent on getting home after the New Year’s party at their father’s bosses house. Mother was smiling, all dressed up; hair tied in a neat bun and her pearls glittering with the fireworks that sparked above them, she looks back at them as she laughed. This time mother didn’t make her insides feel bad, she even made her feel warm despite the boy’s clothes that she had to wear.</p>
<p>Even father is smiling, hair gelled back and his eyes intent on the road even as he laughs.</p>
<p>Everything feels nice, perfect even for one blissful, beautiful moment and then everything burns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I call FemMC Nagisa instead of Minako or Kotone, so there's that.
> 
> Love does not heal everything, ‘the power of love’ may help but it does not mean that your life is all happiness and rainbows and unicorn farts; time doesn’t even heal everything, sometimes nothing is ever healed. *high-pitched frustrated screaming*
> 
> The fluff takes place randomly and it may seem out of place given the slowly forming darkness of the fic but sometimes fluff is needed and deserved.
> 
> Also, Nagisa is going to get help so don't skewer me, please.
> 
> *whispers* I'm sorry. Take a deep breath.

She is three years old when she begins to understand that something is different about her. She doesn’t know what it is but there is something missing, something that needs to be filled.

_Mama is inside the house feeling sick and Papa is working late tonight. She and Nagi-chan are going to pick flowers for Mama to make her smile so she’ll get better faster, Nagi-chan is doing something over in the other corner of the garden while she focuses on picking flowers. There are pretty pink flowers that look like they would make Mama so happy, picking them and sniffing them, giggling when the petals tickle her nose._

_She stands brushing off the leaves and dirt from her knees and her Mama’s flowers, a yowl startles her and she turns and her eyes widen seeing Nagi-chan hold a kitten by the scruff of the neck and shaking it wildly “Nagi-chan, no!” Nagi-chan lets go of the cat immediately and looks back at her with a smile but the look in her eyes is something that scares her._

She is three years old when she finds out that her older twin sister has something missing too.

::

She is five years old and she wants to wear skirts and dresses; she doesn’t feel good when people call her a handsome boy, it makes her get goose bumps and makes her feel like she’s going to throw up.

Mama and Papa don’t know what to do but they don’t let her wear the clothes she wants to wear. All she hears is them say “No, Mina-kun, what will the neighbors think!” she doesn’t care about the neighbors, the neighbors don’t have anything to do with her wearing a dress or skirts.

Nagi-chan hasn’t done anything bad like in the garden but Nagi-chan doesn’t like it when she plays with anybody else. Nagi-chan pushes the others away, won’t let anyone near her. Not unless it’s her own friends, she can only play with Nagi-chan’s friends.

But Nagi-chan lets her wear dresses and skirts when Mama and Papa are asleep, she even calls her pretty and does her hair even if she tends to brush too hard or yanking her hair on accident.

_Mama and Papa are asleep and Nagi-chan is brushing her hair in the mirror again, giggling as she puts another heart-shaped pin in her hair. She stares at her reflection intently, toying with the hem of the dress Nagi-chan is letting her borrow, as Nagi-chan finally pulls away ‘You look so pretty, Mina-chan!” and she smiles so wide her face hurts and Nagi-chan grins and nuzzles her cheek with her and they both giggle._

_Nagi-chan is the one who grabs the first pillow and hits her with it, she goes and grabs one and they have a pillow fight going; their giggles erupting into full blown laughter as they bounce on each other’s beds and throws pillows; jumping off to retrieve ammunition. She is happy, bouncing along in her dress and laughing with her sister. It makes something inside of her burst with warmth._

_That warmth soon turns to dread when the door slams open and Papa storms in, like a dark, angry beast. He glares at them with his arms crossed but then they drop when he stares at her and then his entire face goes red and he shakes but not in laughter. He practically rips off his belt and grabs her by the arm “Dammit I told you that you can’t dress like this!!”_

_Mama is at the door and she looks pale “Dear, they’re only playing-”_

_“No son of mine is going to be a faggot! No son of mine is going to be some fucked up freak!”_

_She doesn’t understand what the words mean but they hurt, something inside of her churns and goes completely cold even when Papa begins spanking her. She doesn’t remember anything else._

_Doesn’t remember their mother trying to drag Nagi-chan out of the room, doesn’t remember Nagi-chan pulling away and biting their father so hard that she breaks skin and has a mouthful of his blood. She doesn’t remember Nagi-chan screaming like she’s being attacked. She doesn’t remember the police coming over and finding her and Nagi-chan curled up in the closet or remember the young officer named Kurosawa questioning them._

_But she knows Nagi-chan lies._

_She doesn’t remember anything only the cold feeling in her body but she and Nagi-chan can’t sleep in the same room anymore and mother and father aren’t the same anymore. Nobody buys anymore skirts or dresses and the neighbors keep glancing at them funny._

She is five years old and she wants to wear skirts and dresses, wants to be pretty instead of handsome, and she wants to stop feeling so cold.

::

She is seven when her life becomes perdition and bliss. Their mother and father get over whatever it is that was bad but it’s not the same.

Mother’s kisses and hugs feel weird and too tight, the scent of her perfume makes her stomach clench and her voice makes her feel like her spine is too stiff.

Father’s touch makes her feel sick and she feels like throwing up whenever she sees him, she doesn’t like being near him. More so when he wants ‘father-son’ bonding time.

Nagi-chan is becoming weird because she gets angry for no reason, she even scares mother sometimes when she screams at her and throws things at the walls. “But I just want to stay with you forever, Mina-chan. I don’t wanna sleep in different rooms or be away from you, ever.” It feels weird when Nagi-chan says things like that and not in the good way.

_They’d been riding in the car intent on getting home after the New Year’s party at their father’s bosses house. Mother was smiling, all dressed up; hair tied in a neat bun and her pearls glittering with the fireworks that sparked above them, she looks back at them as she laughed. This time mother didn’t make her insides feel bad, she even made her feel warm despite the boy’s clothes that she had to wear._

_Even father is smiling, hair gelled back and his eyes intent on the road even as he laughs._

_Everything feels nice, perfect even for one blissful, beautiful moment and then everything burns._

::

Minato cradles her head as she staggers to get up, white noise blaring in her ears, knees knocking together as she finally gets to her feet and looks around with wide eyes. Everything is green and there’s blood everywhere “Mom?” she asks through the white noise as she looks around “Dad?” she stumbles over fallen debris “Nagisa?”

She spies her sister standing in front of something, shown in perfect detail under an eerie full moon. “Nagisa?” Nagisa turns to her, eyes odd and she turns back with her following her line of sight. Her eyes widen and her pupils dilate when she sees the car, their car on fire. “Mom? Dad?”

Nagisa grabs her hand in a harsh grip that causes her to wince but stops her from going towards the car, it explodes with a deafening noise and Minato shields her eyes and turns to her sister who watches the dancing fire with a bone chilling smile on her face. Minato hears something as the white noise begins to ebb but she can’t stop staring at the fire, at the blood on the ground. Maybe they got out, her mind whispers, they got out and they’ve fainted. The sounds come closer and Nagisa let’s go of her and turns and walks away from the sound, away from their parents.

Minato watches her making to call out to her when a long, forbidding shadow casts over her, the words die on her tongue as she turns and looks up and sees it and it grins at her.

“NO!” She sees her sister rush forward and then strands of blonde hair and grief-stricken, apologetic blue eyes, hears the whir of a machine and chanting before the world blurs in pain and everything becomes dark as something nestles inside of her.

::

She wakes up in a hospital room with her sister curled up next to her; she scans the room for their parents but she can’t find them. She looks at Nagisa who is nuzzling her cheek with hers “Where’re mom and dad?”

Nagisa gives that odd, creepy smile again and shakes her head “It’s just you and me now, Mina-chan, _forever_.” It is not comforting as it may have once been because she remembers seeing that smile on the bridge and it scares her.

::

They get separated. Minato goes into the custody of a man named Naoya Todo while Nagisa goes to a nameless aunt that they’ve only met for a few hours at most.

Nagisa refuses adamantly when the man begins leading Minato away by the hand; she bites and kicks and screams and punches trying to get to Minato.

She resembles a wild, crazed thing rather than an adorable, quirky girl “NO! MINATO’S MINE!!! GIVE MINATO BACK TO ME!!!”

But she doesn’t want to go back, Nagisa is starting to scare her.

::

Naoya is kind and gentle, he never raises his voice at her but she’s only been staying with him for two weeks; there is plenty of time for him to make mistakes.

Minato feels the ice from back then envelop her dangerously, it feels odd and harmful but she can’t let it go, it won’t let her go. She feels like she’s drowning. She’s woken up with night terrors and nightmares and she can’t seem to function properly.

Naoya doesn’t get angry, he hugs her and pets her head but he never says that everything is going to be alright or okay, and that makes her feel a bit better.

::

She wakes up crying again curled up in her new bed late at night where everything is tinged green and there’s blood on the walls. She covers her mouth and cries pulling the covers over her head and trying not to scream. “Are you okay?” She gasps and slowly pokes her head out and sees a boy with short faded black hair, bright blue eyes and pale skin with a beauty mark under his left eye. He has black-and-white striped pajamas and sandals.

She sniffles and slowly sits up clutching the blanket close to her chest “Y-you’re not a monster, are you?”

He looks down fiddling with his hands and looks back up at her “No, I don’t think I am.” He gives her a carefree smile looking completely at ease.

“A-are you Naoya-san’s son?”

He frowns confusion lining his frame and she slowly sits up “No, I’m not anyone’s… son.”

“My name is Minato, what’s your name?”

He steps closer nearer to her as she finally lets the cover down “I don’t have a name, I can’t remember it, but I feel like I know you.”

And that was the first night of many where she would receive visits from a little boy with no name.


	2. Oyosute Aina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re a very pretty girl, Minato-chan.”
> 
> The smile he receives practically rivals the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is fluff in the chapter, there will be another chapter of fluff before it all starts crumbling down.
> 
> Thank you all for everything~
> 
> Also, short chapter is short.

Taking care of Minato isn’t hard, making sure that Minato feels safe is hard at times but after seven months in his care, Minato is quite happy.

Naoya smiles when Minato runs up to him with a stuffed Jack Frost doll in his arms squealing, “Look, look I won!”

He grins and ruffles his hair ignoring the huff and readies his camera, Minato holds the doll closer and beams at the camera.

Minato takes his hand as they go further into the park, looking around at all the games and food stands. Minato looks up at him with serious eyes and Naoya takes them over to a bench and gives his adopted son his full attention. “I’m a girl, I’ve always been a girl.”

At first he wants to say that it isn’t true, Minato is a boy; there is physical evidence that he is male but something stops him and he looks down at Minato “A girl, not a boy?”

Minato shakes his-her head furiously with a frown “I’m a girl, not a boy and I’m not a freak.”

Naoya frowns and places his large hand on Minato's head “Hey, you aren’t a freak,” and he leans in giving hi-her a half smile “and you can be a girl if you want to.”

Minato huffs and playfully bats at his hand “I don’t _want_ to be a girl, I _am_ a girl.”

Naoya smiles gently and picks Minato up and swings her around laughing when she squeals in delight, he cradles her close and she stares at him intently “Of course, I’m sorry.” She wrinkles her nose and laughs helplessly when he tickles her and nuzzles her cheek with his “You’re a very pretty girl, Minato-chan.”

The smile he receives practically rivals the sun.

::

She’s in a tall building, large and intimidating and blue, overlooking the ocean that glows bright blue but not like the Caribbean Sea from what little can be seen over the thick fog on top of it, lapping at the building from all sides.

She’s alone in the building, in a long hallway with twenty-three large paintings and an elevator at the end; she nears the first and traces the engraving on the gold plaque underneath the painting. “Zero, the start of the journey?” she frowns and makes her way to the other painting “One, the right hand?” she stepped away from it and looked around at each of the paintings, all holding a number and then an odd description.

She nears the last one at the end of the hall and stares at it finding it covered in a thick black cloth and when she looks at the description she frowns “Your journey is not yet over and has not yet begun.” The further she stares at it the colder she feels until a faint singing grabs her attention. It calls out to her and she pushes the up button and the doors open releasing an aria that settles in her, _like coming home_.

_And this is the first but not the last that she will be in this elevator, even though she will never remember it._

::

She doesn’t remember what day it is but she figures that cold never really goes away. It stays there, in the back of her mind and in the depths of her soul. _Naoya-tousan I don’t feel good, I feel really cold inside._

Her dad doesn’t really understand what she means when she says she feels cold even in the summer but he tries. Like he tries making sure that she can wear what she wants but he doesn’t buy her skirts or dresses but it’s fine, because he always calls her _her_ and doesn’t ever get angry when she wants to put on makeup only telling her that she’s too young and that she doesn’t need it.

_Today is her eighth birthday and she’s about to go to sleep curled up in her bed, full from cake and ice cream and other treats that she’s gotten throughout the day, as Naoya-tousan talks to her in his Jack Frost voice when he brings in a new brightly wrapped box, she knows that he didn’t wrap it since he can never get the idea of how to use wrapping paper let alone get it into some nice form that isn’t all the way crumpled from previous attempts, he places it on her legs and gestures for her to open it._

_Hesitatingly she opens it and lifts up the other papers and stares at the soft cream colored dress in the box. She looks up at her dad and feels tears sting her eyes when he gives her a grin, “Come on, try it on.” She scrambles out of bed nearly tripping over herself and lets him help her put it on making him cover his eyes halfway through._

_The dress feels like it’s magic when she finally gets it on and she stares at herself in the small full length mirror in her room and gives a small twirl watching as it flutters with her movements. “Can I look now?” she makes a garbled noise and her dad looks at her, and beams._

_She begins crying and he’s there hugging her tightly “Don’t you like it?”_

_She looks up at him with wide eyes and begins to stammer but the words won’t come out so she hugs him as tight as she can and her dad relaxes and kisses the crown of her head and hugs her tight. “Thank you! Thank you!” finally she pulls away and twirls rapidly, the skirt fluttering around her until she stops watching as it slowly falls down like a petal swaying in the wind._

_She gasps when her dad tugs on her hands and then, they’re spinning and dancing around the room and he twirls her around, and neither can stop laughing and it… and it, it chases the cold away._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cried after I wrote this.


	3. At the Very Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagisa ignores her aunt’s begging look and turns to it, “Good mask.” She gently rubs the number III on it with a smile and turns to her aunt; a broken, odd nearly animalistic look in her eyes. “Make her suffer.”
> 
> The mask roars and then blood begins spraying the floor and walls, some even lands on her and Nagisa walks over to her aunt who is now covered in blood and deep lacerations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all sweet bunnies and I love you all!~
> 
> About that note in the last chapter that said there would be another chapter of fluff and then everything would go to hell?? Yeah, there was a miscalculation on my part. (Microsoft was acting funny and didn't save even though it said it did.) I'll make up for it later though I promise!
> 
> This chapter contains: some cannibalism, child abuse, sexual abuse, and violence. This is the chapter Nagisa goes down into the deep end, well flung into it really.
> 
> I'm sorry.

The first day she is there, her aunt is drinking heavily. The house reeks of cheap beer and she wonders how the social workers didn’t notice but she can’t care about that. _Minato is not with her. Minato is not here. Minato is away from her. They had never been away from each other before. **Because Minato belongs at her side.**_

Nanami Nakamura is her aunt and she does not want her but she doesn’t care, she doesn’t want her either. _She just wants Minato at her side so that they can be together forever._

“I hate you.” Nanami says leaning against the doorway of the living room; she is not prepared to host a child, doesn’t even want a child. But the child is the last reminder she has of her dear sister; maybe that was why she wanted custody. She didn’t give a shit about the other one because _it_ looked too much like _him_ and not enough like Haru for her tastes. It meant that the bastard had sex with Haru, had touched her in places that- Nanami glares at the girl who sits perfectly still in the living room giving no implication that she had heard her.

_That little-_ “I don’t want to be here.” The girl says in a sharp, flat tone that makes her insides seize sounding so much like her Haru when she found out- “Minato-chan isn’t here.” **_She dares!_**

Nanami doesn’t remember marching up to the little shit and strangling _it_ so sure that she’d snap _its_ neck with the force she is putting into it but _it_ goes limp in her hands and she pulls away dropping _it_ as if _it_ burned her. She watches as _it_ gasps for breath harshly, chest heaving as it sucks in air greedily, pained chestnut brown eyes glare up at her from the floor and she feels  it. The feeling from so long ago that had always been around ever since Haru had gone through puberty.

_**Lust**_. It burns and coils in her loins and she presses her legs together to stop the burning. The little shit is still on the floor but then it isn’t that thing, it’s Haru. Beautiful Haru with her long auburn hair splayed about her, those beautiful dove grey eyes dazed and lust filled, chest heaving as she pants-

Nagisa stares at her aunt in apprehension and disgust when she sees her hands drift down to her skirt. She turns away as disgust begins to rise with each moan her aunt gives.

::

Nagisa can feel this _thing_ in her head. Scratching, biting, clawing its way through her brain and yowling when it reaches the bone of her skull. It keeps her up at night and makes her scream because she can see these things roaming around.

Her aunt doesn’t appreciate that.

_She sits up screaming clutching at her head, just scant seconds away from the dark hour ending; she takes one look around seeing the blood permeate everything and screams because Minato is not here. Her mother isn’t here. Her father isn’t here. She’s alone. All alone._

_She closes her eyes as the things inside of her skull cry out and want to get out. She sees a hideous face in her mind’s eye, a mask that lunges at her intent at ripping out her throat and screams._

_The door to her room bursts open and her aunt comes in, angry. Hatred practically burning in her eyes “Why are you screaming?!” but she can’t answer her, how can she phrase it- “No answer huh, well I’ll give you something to scream about!” her aunt grabs her roughly and yanks her onto the floor and begins to spank her._

_But something is wrong. Nagisa muffles her cries and an odd smell fills the room but she doesn’t look back when she hears her aunt begin to moan. “Haru-chan.” Nagisa covers her ears and nearly screams when her aunt moves her onto her back; her pajamas bottoms are off and she doesn’t have any underwear._

_There’s an odd, frightening look in her aunt’s eyes and Nagisa forces herself not to remember what happens next._

::

Nagisa hates her aunt, hatred rolls in her heart at the thought of her as easily as blinking. She wants to rip her throat out with her teeth, to grab her ribcage and rip her open and yank out her organs, have her watch her heart burn to ashes before her eyes.

The thing inside of her _likes_ the idea. _She_ likes the idea.

_**Loves** _ the thought of reducing the woman who hurt her so, who dragged her away from Minato, to nothing but bone.

Because all that matters is Minato.

::

The things, the slimy disgusting things listen to her.

She learns this when her aunt is beating her again, because she left a plate in the sink. Her aunt doesn’t even notice that the time has changed and everything is green and bloody. The things wrap their arms around her and hiss joyfully and then her aunt notices.

She screams in fear and backs up against the wall but Nagisa doesn’t pay her any mind instead she looks down at one of them, it purrs and looks up at her and she gives a broken sort of smile and makes to touch the part that’s not covered by a mask but it backs away and shakes its head gesturing towards her aunt. Nagisa watches with wide eyes as her aunt is brought to the floor, the things keeping her there.

Nagisa ignores her aunt’s begging look and turns to it, “Good mask.” She gently rubs the number III on it with a smile and turns to her aunt; a broken, odd nearly animalistic look in her eyes. “Make her suffer.”

The mask roars and then blood begins spraying the floor and walls, some even lands on her and Nagisa walks over to her aunt who is now covered in blood and deep lacerations. Nagisa stands over her and feels something odd, a low heat in her stomach, and lets her hair down “Nanami-chan,” her aunts eyes widen and Nagisa smiles serenely “I will **never** love you.” Her face darkens and her smile turns into a horrifying scowl “Now burn in hell, _auntie_.”

And then, the masks eat her as she watches; they break her ribs, and feast on everything. But they save her heart and an odd one, with the number XI slanted sideways, gives her the heart. Nagisa takes it and bites into it as if it were an apple, feeling the lukewarm blood fill her mouth as she chews.

She hears something drop down onto the floor and looks down dropping the heart without a care and spies a mask, she picks it up tracing the X on it and smiles. She turns it around and places it on her face and when she opens her eyes, they are gold.

::

The next morning a curious neighbor finds a gruesome scene straight out of a horror movie. Nanami Nakamura has been brutally murdered and there is no sign of Nagisa Arisato, police find DNA evidence that proves that the bite marks on Nanami Nakamura’s heart belong to her niece Nagisa Arisato but keep that information from reaching the public and are quick to diffuse any blame that the might get heaped onto the girl.

There was too much force for such a small girl.

So they spin a story. A serial killer broke in, brutally murdered Nakamura-san and kidnapped Nagisa Arisato. The Kirijo group comes in and cleans everything up, spending money like it’s water to make people keep their silence—and they do, because a couple of people have already gone missing and returned without those memories—and nothing more is said. It’s kept off public record and everyone pretends everything is okay.

Nagisa Arisato is found a week later, blood smeared on her face and limbs. Her chestnut eyes are a crimson red, she appears no different. She is not traumatized but she gets this ‘not all there’, vacant look in her eyes before she hugs herself; she claims to have no memory over why she was gone. All she says is that she wants Minato.

That is the start of everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haru written (陽) to mean ‘sun’  
> Nanami written (七海) to mean ‘seven sea’  
> Since Minato means harbor and Nagisa means sea shore (shore side???) their names are mostly sea related.
> 
> Excuse me please while I cry in my own little corner of self-loathing and fandom perdition.


	4. Destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are voices in her head that she can’t get rid of. No amount of thumping her head against the wall works nor does screaming into her pillows help at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of you are my sweet fluffy bunnies and I like you, thank you for your patience and your reviews and kudos! Short chapter is short and also late. I cannot write Nagisa's chapters for the life of me, I also have no idea what I'm doing with Nagisa anymore.
> 
> I was going to do a massive posting for all my fics on here but I couldn't because I'm having writing troubles and new fics keep popping up so I can't keep a solid idea (I blame Skull and his potential).
> 
> Next chapter is fluff and from there on I think most chapters will settle around Minato with some Nagisa thrown in. I think there's a timeskip going on next chapter so we may finally be at Gekkoukan!
> 
> Warnings: I don't think there's any but a vague description of Saori Hasegawa pops up.

She is left alone in a big, empty house. Child services does not come knocking and whisking her away.

Her home is quiet, very still. But she goes to school and the bills are taken care of and she learns to cook.

The house is quiet and very still.

It’s maddening.

There are voices in her head that she can’t get rid of. No amount of thumping her head against the wall works nor does screaming into her pillows help at all. It was abated only, slightly ever so damn slightly, after she destroyed her aunts’ things. Watching as pieces of her burned away like her aunt took the one thing she wanted to give Minato, it was gratifying and the voices _purred_.

When a girl, older than her, with short dark grey curly hair with the same colored eyes, too pale skin, and a fake, polite smile gives her an MP3 she finds a love of music.

Anything and everything soothes the silence. She listens to it, the voices go away and whatever it is that claws at the base of her skull, it’s docile, like that stupid quote ‘music calms the savage beast’. She wonders what sort of music Minato will listen to, if _he_ would listen to anything ranging from Classical music to Folk but for now she will concentrate on keeping the silence out as she prepares for Minato.

She will learn to cook and clean and keep Minato happy and healthy but she will not share _her_ again. _No sharing her got them into this mess._

So she will have to keep everyone away from Minato and keep her all to herself, no one could know how beautiful Minato was. No one could know how kind and gentle and loving and sweet she was. No one. Only Nagisa and in time, Minato would learn to only need Nagisa.

_Minato and Nagisa. Mina-chan and Nagi-chan. Together forever from womb to cradle to tomb._

Nagisa smiles serenely and it looks like the sound of breaking glass.

::

It isn’t that hard, making herself seem like a cheerful quirky girl.

She smiles and laughs and she’s charismatic. She’s the girl everyone knows by first name and mostly everyone knows how kind and warm and caring she is.

She is a perfect lady with manners.

It makes her laugh when she arrives home _[big, empty house with no one there to be with her]_ because everyone is simply so _easy._ Everyone is so expendable, easily tossed away once their uses are over.

“All I need is Minato.” She whispers in the dead of night staring at her green bloody walls listening to the hissing and roaring in the distance.

::

Today she feels different. Like she’s lucid after a long nightmare turned dream. _[She knows her aunt is dead but she can’t recall how]_

People are touching her, people that call themselves friends and it feels alright. _[Of course, they’re her friends. Why wouldn't she like them touching her?]_

“Nagisa-chan, let’s play!”

Nagisa rushes out towards the soccer field, chestnut brown eyes bright as a wide, cheerful smile lights up her face.

::

Finally. Finally, child services gets the hint and Nagisa is taken in by other family members.

They smile, they laugh and they hug her.

But she can hear them late at night when they think she's asleep.  _"What if she murders us?"_

_"It's a lie and you know it!"_

_"What are we going to do? We can't kick her out and we can't just let child services take her back, what would the neighbors think?"_

Nagisa turns up her music as loud as she can to block out the voices, hatred bubbling in her chest. She closes her eyes and blocks out the noise even going as far as to listening to the scratching in her brain when everything once more becomes bloody and green. Hawk yellow eyes glaring at the walls as time seems to grow infinite yet remain just as insignificant with each passing second.

::

In slumber underneath the joyous soul and the growing darkness of a forgotten heart, Death slumbers peacefully waking only in sparse moments listening to an excited, soft voice tell stories and laugh and sing and then listening to another voice, twisted with obsession and madness.

::

Every night as she dreams she finds herself staring up at a large golden doors and _wants_. She  needs to meet whoever is behind that door because they are hers. [Minato. Minato is there!] She drags herself, ever so slowly as if she's been asleep for eons and she does not yet have full control of her motor skills. So she lays there waiting.

Watching as the doors seem to glow brighter, as the doors seem to mock her in its innocuous meaning.

Growing stronger each year, she stares at the golden doors. Eyes glowing a blistering red as it draws strength and laughs. 

       **_s_**

_o_

      **O**

**_n_ **


End file.
